Postponement to this summer of the Russian module Zvezda's launch led to the decision in February to split Atlantis' flight STS-101/2A.2 into two separate missions (2A.2a and 2A.2b). This will allow planned maintenance, repair, logistics and supply tasks to be carried out prior to Zvezda's arrival while providing for completion of the initial work required soon after the module's addition to the ISS. More than 3,000 pounds of hardware and supplies were delivered by Space Shuttle Atlantis to the International Space Station (ISS). The launch has been delayed from April 24 to May 19 due to bad weather. On Sunday May 21, astronauts Jim Voss and Jeff Williams made an 6 hour 44 minute spacewalk to repair a lose crane that was installed last year, they also replaced a faulty antenna and installed several handrails and a camera cable on the station. On Monday May 22 the astronauts opened the hatches between the Shuttle and the Station and began to work inside it, to replace smoke-detectors and batteries. The crew worked for five days inside the station making it ready for the arrival of both the Zvezda and first crew. On Friday May 26 Atlantis undocked from ISS and left the Station in a 27 mile higher orbit. On Monday May 29, Atlantis landed on KSC runway 15 after a flight of almost 10 days. STS-101 was commanded by Jim Halsell. Joining him on the crew were Pilot Scott Horowitz and Mission Specialists Mary Ellen Weber, Jeff Williams, Jim Voss, Susan Helms and Yuri Usachev.

The Zvezda service module, which will house life support systems, serve as the living quarters, and provide the ISS with command and control and reboost capability through the early assembly sequence. Zvezda's launch remains targeted for July 12.
The Russian Proton-K rocket, with the 24 ton Zvezda service module loaded aboard, was transported via train to Baikonur Cosmodrome's launch pad 23 on Saturday July 8, in preparation for liftoff. On July 12 the Service Module for ISS was finaly launched. The launch occurred at 12:56 a.m. EDT (0456 GMT) and went without a hitch. Two days after launch, using its two rear engines, Zvezda raised its orbit from about 210 miles to about 225 miles, placing it closer to the two pieces of the station in preperation for docking. After two weeks of free flight, Zvezda linked up with ISS. The docking occurred at 8:45 p.m. EDT on July 25, as the 43-foot-long module and the station's other two pieces floated about 230 miles above northeastern Kazakstan, traveling at about 17,500 mph. With the docking of Zvezda to ISS, the space station is ready to receive its first permanent crew at the end of October.

A Soyuz-U rocket carrying a Progress M1-3 cargo ship was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Launch took place at 2:27 PM EDT (1827 GMT), on August 06. After 2 days of free flight the Progress dockedad the end of the Zvezda module on August 08. The basic cargo Progress M1 is carrying to ISS is fuel reserves to be used for correcting the orbit of the modules Unity-Zarya-Zvezda. Also on board the progress are cargo essential for the first long-term ISS expedition scheduled to start on October 30 this year. These materials include food, household items for the station's crew and materials necessary for the life-support system.

The STS-106 crew, CDR, Terrence W. Wilcutt, PLT, Scott D. Altman, MS, Edward Tsang Lu, Daniel C. Burbank, Richard A. Mastracchio, Yuri I. Malenchenko and Boris W. Morukov were launched on September 08, at 8:45:47 am EDT from pad-39B. On Sunday morning September 10 at 12:51 am CDT Atlantis docked with ISS above Kazakhstan. After docking the crew made final preparations for the planned EVA the next day. On Monday morning Astronauts Ed Lu en Yuri Melenchenko made a 6 hour and 14 minute spacewalk outside ISS. The 2 astronauts connected nine cables between Zvezda en Zarya. They also installed a magnetometer and boom to the Zvezda module. The next day the crew opend the door to enter the space station. The crew moved supplies from Atlantis to ISS during the 6 days they were docked. Also the crew installed a treadmill for use aboard the station.

Space Shuttle Discovery took off from the Kennedy Space Center on October 11, after several delays in the launch due to technical problems, for the 3rd flight to ISS this year. The crew (Brian Duffy, Pamela Melroy, Koichi Wakata, Leroy Chiao, Jeff Wisoff, Michael Lopez-Alegria and Bill McArthur, delivered the Z-1 Truss and PMA-3 to the station. The crew made a total of four spacewalks to conect the new hardware to ISS. After the EVA's were complete the astronauts entered the station for delivery of suplies for the first expedition crew. After 6 days docked at the station Discovery boosted ISS in a higher orbit and undocked. Landing of Discovery was delayed for two days due to bad weather at KSC. Discovery finaly came home on October 24, with a landing at Edwards AFB in California. Total mission time was 12 days, 21 hours and 43 minutes.

With Zvezda finaly in orbit and STS-92 succesfully completed, the first crew for ISS was launched on October 31 with a Soyuz rocket. Commander of this first Expedition crew is Bill Shepherd. The other two crewmembers are; Sergei Krikalev en Yuri Gidzenko. After a two day flight the Soyuz TM-31 spacecraft docked with ISS and the crew entered the station. Commander Sheperd started calling the Station Alpha in air to ground communications. During their stay they will get visits from 3 space Shuttle crews, STS-97 in December, STS-98 in January 2001 and STS-102 in February 2001. STS-102 will also bring the next main crew to ISS.

Progress M1-4 was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome with a Soyuz-U rocket on November 14. After 2 days of free flight the Progress was scheduled to dock automaticly to Alpha but problems with the Kurs docking system prompted Yuri Gidzenko to perform manual docking to the Zarya module. The Progress is carrying Food Fuel and other basic needs for the ISS crew. On December 01 the Progress undocked from the Station to make room for Space Shuttle Endeavour which was launched the day before. The Progress redocked to the station on December 26.